Rush Hour - by CommaVid for Atari 2600
Game tagline: "Live out those traffic jam fantasies as you smash and dodge your way thru RUSH HOUR!"

4K game

There are 9 different game variations, which range in difficulty from easiest (1 - slowest carriers) to hardest (9 - fastest carriers).

CONTROLS:
Pushing LEFT triggers the turbo/retro-rockets, increasing your speed. Pushing RIGHT applies the brakes. Change lanes by pushing either UP or DOWN. The FIRE button fires the headlight lasers, and also starts/restarts the game. The TV Type switch controls the pause feature: When set to B&W, the game will be paused. To un-pause, simply switch it back to COLOR. The Difficulty switches don't seem to have any affect.

DESCRIPTION [from CommaVid material]:
"You're in a hurry and you can't afford to be one minute late. As you drive along smoothly, you're suddenly caught in a driver's nightmare - a traffic jam during rush hour - but you can't just creep along! Good thing your super auto is equipped with laser-blasting headlights. Blast, dodge, and weave your way through high-speed traffic, but you must avoid the debris cluttering the Autobahn to reach your destination!"

SCORING:
Each car that you destroy is worth 20 points. Each carrier is also worth 20 points. Destroying all 5 carriers on level one is worth 600 bonus points. This increases by 600 for each level. At level 9, the carrier bonus is 5,400.

OBJECTIVE:
You must race along a crowded 5-lane freeway at rush hour in an effort to stop the 5 barriers (? - they're never explained, so I'll refer to them as car carriers) from losing any cars and causing a huge traffic jam. You must reach them before they get too far ahead, as denoted by the radar screen. You'll encounter various other cars before reaching the carriers, along with nails and other debris. You can choose to go around the vehicles, or destroy them by using either the headlight lasers or the retro-rockets.

Colliding with any vehicle will cause damage to your car and compromise your control of it - the severity of which varies based on how fast you were going when you hit them (note that you can also be hit from behind if you're traveling too slowly.). These factors also determine how many hits your car can take before being completely destroyed (between 1 to 5, and possibly more). Wreckage from shooting a car is just as deadly, and running into a carrier spells instant death! Minor damage will automatically be repaired after a few minutes; major damage takes much longer, and most likely will result in the carriers getting away.

Just before you reach the carriers, all traffic will suddenly come to a screeching halt! Once you catch up to them, you must destroy them one at a time. When they are about to release a car, they'll turn while - this is the only time they're vulnerable! After successfully eliminating all 5 carriers, the chase will start anew at the next highest level. Remember- you only have 1 car (1 chance, with no opportunity to earn more), so be careful!

From the box description, there were a few elements that were never fully implemented (running over nails have no effect on your car, you don't have to pull over for repairs, etc.). Although the original prototype is quite buggy (at times even unplayable), the current CommaVid owners asked Digital Eclipse's Mike Mika and Zach Matley if they could help fix the major glitches with it - the result being it's now stable enough to run and enjoyable to play! It's unfortunate that the original programmer never got to finish it, as it could very well have been CommaVid's best title.or at the very least it's most colorful (it's the only one w/o a black background).

RUSH HOUR will be available for purchase for the very first time ever, anywhere, at Classic Gaming Expo 2003.

Promo materials: click for a larger view!